The Top UX Predictions for 2015 As we mentioned last week when we gave you the top UX trends of 2014, it's been a big year for experience design. 2015 shows all signs of being an even bigger one, with experience design sinking deeper into products, services, organizations, and the lives of those who interact with them. Without further ado, here are some predictions for 2015 from our contributors: A Rise in “Slippy” UX - Shannon Copfer, JW Player Up until now, we’ve seen a lot of focus on creating “sticky” user experiences—experiences that engage the user and keep them interested, as well as bringing them back for more. “Sticky” has been considered one of the most desirable design traits possible—a way for digital experience designers to show off their talent, eliciting “oohs” and “ahhs” from consumers, critics, and peers alike. What we will be seeing shortly, however, is a purposeful trend towards “slippy” experience design. Jake Zukowski, UX in Automobiles The Death of Web Design - Sergio Nouvel of Continuum
Best Website Designs from Germany: Details, New Technology and Accuracy - Designmodo Beauty in diversity: The best German website designs are eager to prove it to you. Inspired by a German art culture that embraces various art movements starting from modern vibrant street art (aka graffiti) and ending with lavish pop-art and gloomy but highly thorough international Gothic, it certainly has something to show with numerous exceptionally talented folks. Nevertheless, this is not the only factor that defines German artists. When it comes to website design, digital agencies as well as individual creatives stick to more contemporary solutions, follow trends and join the mainstream, by and large, leaving vestiges of the past in the past. Want to find out which German web projects provoke a competition and encourage others to test their limits in this area? Jeep Renegade The spectacular photo-manipulated background enlivened by a sharp and geometric typography and sleek grunge touches instantly strikes the eye. Helllicht Kai Brueckers Tobias Hausler Hochburg Maya and The Jacks Ok Kid
40 Resources Every Designer Should Know | OtherFocus Ever wondered where designers get their resources to help them succeed with a project? Here is a list of great resources including sites, PSD. files, actions, UI elements, mock ups et cetera and best of all, they are totally free and available for you to download. Just click on the title or image and it will bring you to the resource. Bookmark this post so that you can always look back at this great list that can help you succeed. Icons for your website, an iPhone mock up or PSD’s for your landing page, Fribbble is the place to be. Many of us struggle when posting a project at Behance. Another great site to get free PSD files, blurred background or UI elements. Struggling to get the perfect colour combination? A great site where you can download free stock images. In need of some high quality patterns? Lets you design a website, for free, without code. Guides can be a pain in the ass when it comes down to web design, here is a simple solution for you! Love this site!
Best Website Designs from Spain: Full of Passion - Designmodo Dynamic, vibrant, vivid, energizing, charismatic, nifty and stylish – the best website designs from Spain fascinate with a broad spectrum of feelings and moods. And this is not accidental, since everything starts with a cultural heritage that is truly unique, diverse and motley. Spanish art has matured from numerous artistic movements and eras that are astonishingly varied: Romanesque, Muslim, Italian Renaissance, Spanish Renaissance, Golden Age of Spanish culture, period of Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism as well as directions like Cubism and Surrealism and that are just as high on the list. Spanish artists are growing up under the enormous influence of this great abundance, so it’s not surprising that their considerable creative potential finds its way out in various spheres, manifesting itself in original ways. Website designs listed below are perfect examples of that, so let’s take a look at them. Alejandro Torres Moon Zione Ceramica Nutone Lois Jeans 2013 Almatrichi Gonzalo Perez Typeform Veni
romashamin/Size-Marks-PS Why the modern world is bad for your brain | Science Our brains are busier than ever before. We’re assaulted with facts, pseudo facts, jibber-jabber, and rumour, all posing as information. Trying to figure out what you need to know and what you can ignore is exhausting. At the same time, we are all doing more. Our smartphones have become Swiss army knife–like appliances that include a dictionary, calculator, web browser, email, Game Boy, appointment calendar, voice recorder, guitar tuner, weather forecaster, GPS, texter, tweeter, Facebook updater, and flashlight. But there’s a fly in the ointment. Multitasking has been found to increase the production of the stress hormone cortisol as well as the fight-or-flight hormone adrenaline, which can overstimulate your brain and cause mental fog or scrambled thinking. In the old days, if the phone rang and we were busy, we either didn’t answer or we turned the ringer off. Just having the opportunity to multitask is detrimental to cognitive performance. © Daniel J.
65 useful UX design tools - WBD For a UX designer it is very important to have right kind of tools. So we put together a complete list of UX design tools divided into categories like: Wireframing, Prototyping, Diagramming, Web Analytics, Feedback tools, Session Recording, ClickTracking, Remote Usability Testing, Offline Usability Testing, A/B testing and UX Design App. Now I have my personal favorites but you will never know what works for you best unless you try them. Wireframing: • Balsamiq • Mockingbird (free) • Moqups (free) • Mockflow • UXPin • Pencil Project (free) Prototyping: • Axure • FluidUI • Hotgloo • iRise • Just In Mind • Pidoco • Proto.io • Protoshare • UXPin Diagramming: • Cacoo • Creately • Draw.io (free) • Gliffy • Omnigraffle • Lovely Charts • Lucid Chart Web Analytics: • Adobe Analytics • Google Analytics • KissMetrics • MixPanel • Piwik Feedback tools: • GetSatisfaction • Kampala • Survey.io • UsabilityTools • UserVoice • Qualaroo • 4Q Survey image courtesy: uxmax.com
32 Dispelled Myths About UX And Web Design Hungarian user experience designer Zoltán Gócza put together a list of 32 most common myths about UX and web design. An Italian communication and advertising agency That’s Com loved the list so much that with help of a freelance graphic designer Alessandro Giammaria they have turned the list into a collection of brilliant posters. There are 32 posters in total, each dedicated to a single UX or web design myth. UX is key when it comes to web design or any design for that matter. How (and When) to Design a Mood Board You know it when you see it. That’s usually the case when it comes to how we feel about design. Getting on the same page with someone about your design ideas can be difficult with words alone, which is why tools that help communicate what you see in your head can be useful. If you’re working on a new idea for an app with a friend, your friend might say, they like the design style of Facebook. To get a better understanding of someone’s preference for design, one of the most common places to start is by creating a collection of different images, graphics, or examples of styles you enjoy. Here’s an example of a mood board for a logo design: At our company Crew, we constantly have projects going on that involve some level of design, from creating our logo to designing our homepage. There’s times when it makes sense to make a mood board and other times when it might hurt the design process. Most of us don’t think exclusively in words or text alone. Everything excites you. Don’t hold back
Typegenius Online App Shows Designers the Best Font Match Most designers pride themselves on their ability to choose the font combinations they use in their projects, thank you — except for when they need a little help in deciding which fonts look best together. Luckily, there’s a quick and easy way to get some extra visual input. Typegenius is a Website app that picks the perfect font combo for you when you enter a main font choice. Typegenius, a project from Muno Creative, draws from a curated collection of Google Fonts and Adobe Typekit selections to offer that single match. I can understand why an online app like Typegenius might want to limit the number choices to eliminate confusion. Because of its limited choices, Typegenius is great for steering you in the right direction and giving you a basis for further research. ➤ Typegenius
The Urban Dictionary Of Design Slang Joining the ranks of any profession is the same as committing yourself to learning an entirely new language, most of which is frankly gibberish. (TPS reports, anyone?) Design is no exception. So we asked some of our friends at design firms—including Pentagram, Ammunition, Huge, Ziba, Pensole, Google Ventures, Sagmeister & Walsh, and more—to define their favorite examples of design slang and jargon. The answers we received range from serious to tongue-in-cheek, but if you've ever been puzzled by a designer telling you he needed to "ideate a more approachable FTUX" or "add more value to that horsey megamenu," this resource should help you translate. We've updated the post below to contain a few more definitions, and we will continue to update this story with new definitions supplied by our readers: just leave a comment or Tweet at @FastCoDesign with the hashtag #DesignJargon to get your entry added. 2x2 n. A bunch of numpties n. A magnet that acquires meaning n. Above the fold adj.